One day, hopefully far into the future, I’m going to have to look back on my life and ask myself, “Did I live a good life?” Think about that for a second…that is the ultimate goal, in my opinion. Every single person on this planet has a different criteria that will answer that question. It seems like it could be a lifelong search for that criteria, but I believe it’s actualy right in front of you.

Many things that we enjoy have a bad reputation. For me, it’s video games. I love games that let me use my imagination, or have a storyline that could be mistaken for a best-selling novel. I also love sports games, because it gives me the chance to do something I couldn’t in real life. A lot of times I feel like I’m wasting my time when I do it because gaming has such a “lazy-mind” connotation to it. But you know what? I know why I like it, and it’s not because I’m lazy or because I want to have mindless fun. To me, it’s like reading a good book or watching a great movie.

Anyway, the point isn’t to talk about how much I like video games, it’s to make you realize that you need to do what makes you happy. You’ll look back on those late-night Madden games, waiting for Halo 3 at midnight, the “one-more-turn” feeling of Civilization IV, and spending all day playing Grand Theft Auto. It applies to all sorts of hobbies and interests. Don’t worry about what other people think…fulfill your life.

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1) Find substitutes for fatty foods. Of course there are diets that completely cut out any fat or sugar, but if you really feel the need to eat a snack, try the reduced fat versions. Herr’s has “Reduced Fat Kettle Cooked Chips.” There are “Reduced Fat Cheeze-Itz”, “Reduced Fat Oreos,” etc. I’ve completely switched over to these, and honestly the only difference is the flakiness of the chip/cookie, and it’s not even that much of a difference. The taste is usually still the same. Don’t be scared, try one out next time you need a snack and let me know what you think.

2) Keep Active. This could seem obvious, but I always hear the excuse “I just don’t have time to work out.” You don’t need to go to the gym five times a week. You don’t need to go hours at a time.

All you need to do is keep active. Play with your pets, play with your kids, walk to the store instead of drive, have a catch with someone, have a catch with yourself, shoot hoops, do jumping jacks for 10 minutes, do 100 sit ups over the course of a day, go for a 10 minute jog, walk around the block a few times, the list can go on and on. The point is that there are hundreds of things you can do to keep active, and that none of these things take any longer than 30 minutes a day.

I still recommend going to the gym, but remember the list above next time you want to make an excuse.

3) If you smoke, stop. I don’t need to explain why.

Enjoy your week!

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“However, for some reason, those dreams and goals occasionally get lost along the way. For some people, as they get older they start to think their goals are no longer important. For many others, something else gets in the way… a new job, school, significant other, etc. But for a majority of people, including myself, it is fear.”

I wrote that in my first post on the blog, but I knew that “fear” was the single most influencing thing that stops us from starting or finishing a goal. I wanted to take some time and really think about the problem. What are we actually afraid of?

Fear is a very irrational feeling. It defies logic. Some people are scared of the dark, even if they know nothing is there. Some are afraid of flying, even though it’s statistically much safer than driving. I could go on and on, but it’s easy to see that fear is quite irrational. However, we all understand that it’s a real feeling, and we all have our own fears.

But there is one fear that I, and countless others feel over the course of their lives. It’s unexplainable. We all know the feeling of thinking up a great idea or declaring that your going to do or change something. but when it’s time to motivate ourselves to do it, something holds us back. It’s the fear of failure.

In my last post, I talked about how I wanted to write a novel, and how every time I sat down and started writing I told myself that I wasn’t good enough. The fear of failure discouraged me, it told me that I couldn’t do it, and it told me that I shouldn’t even try.

One of the guys over at Yin vs. Yang commented on one of the other writer’s posts. He was telling a story about his grandfather who fought in WWII, and quoted him. He said “Courage is not about being unafraid, its about being afraid but going forward in the face of fear.”

We all have a fear of failure. They key is to keep it in balance. Imagine someone who wasn’t afraid of failure at all. They would never question anything that they did, and they would constantly fail, and just not care. Now imagine someone who was so debilitated by their fear of failure that nothing was ever good enough. They would fail because they were too afraid to try.

Now, imagine someone who understand their fear, someone who can harness it and use it to their advantage. They can then look failure straight into the eye and prove it wrong. If you can do that, you are one step closer to being successful and happy.

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Sometimes it’s great, and it usually makes projects that I finish come out exactly the way I want them. But occasionally, it’s debilitating. Ever start something and then trash it after 10 minutes because it’s just “not good enough?”

This is a problem that I face all of the time, especially with writing. I’ve always had a goal of writing a novel. I’m not trying to get published or anything like that; it would just be for myself. So, about a year ago I really got inspired to start writing. Sadly, I’m right where I was then. The same idea has been rolling around in my head for over a year, and I’ve written a page so far. And to be honest, I didn’t even like that one page. So I deleted it.

“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of very good.” What does that mean? To me, it mostly means that on my first try, I’m not going to be perfect. I’ve never written a novel before. The only fiction I’ve ever written was for a creative writing class that I had to do. I realized that the epic 500-page novel that I wanted to write just wasn’t going to happen on the first try. I had to accept the fact that my first work might only be 10 pages, and might not be very good.

You don’t get any better at what your working on if you stop after five minutes and trash it. This goes for anything, whether your trying to get into shape, write a novel, or start a business. There are many stages for every project, and going through the first step and quitting immediately doesn’t teach you how to handle the middle and the ending.

Have a great weekend!

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However, for some reason, those dreams and goals occasionally get lost along the way. For some people, as they get older they start to think their goals are no longer important. For many others, something else gets in the way… a new job, school, significant other, etc. But for a majority of people, including myself, it is fear. (We’ll discuss what we’re afraid of in a future post)

The purpose of this site is to discuss two of the hardest things to do in life; Starting a goal, and finishing that goal. Anyone can talk, and anyone can dream. But many times, it seems really hard to stop thinking about it and start doing it.

We’re here to help you, and ourselves get past that.

Thank you for reading, we hope to see you around here often!

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